Based on the Miramax motion picture by David Magee and the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland follows the relationship between playwright J. M. Barrie and the family that inspired Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, one of the most beloved stories of all time.
Final Broadway performance August 21.
Surprisingly, there's no riff on singing at regionals, even though this new musical also stars Matthew Morrison, a?k?a Mr. Will Schuester of 'Glee.' That's pretty much the only sign of restraint in this overstuffed production...Holding it all together is Morrison. Sporting a beard and Scottish burr, he's tireless, if not especially charismatic, as J.M. Barrie...Barlow and Kennedy dutifully deliver the obligatory power ballads...but their heart is in the faster, livelier ensemble songs...Too bad Michaels' choreography has all the zest of vintage MTV. What's most striking is how a show about the power of whimsy and imagination is so lacking in both. Paulus and Company don't trust intimacy and charm, so everything is overplayed -- despite the advice to an actor rehearsing Barrie's 'Peter Pan' to go 'smaller.' Peter Pan taught others to free themselves and fly. For most of its running time, 'Finding Neverland' remains stuck to the ground.
Bombastic and exhausting, the show confuses childishness with an affinity for the child inside...good luck to it, if only this family-friendly musical...didn't work so strenuously for its meager ounce or two of charm...the show does have a heart-stopping death scene that's both moving and visually spectacular in its bewitching stagecraft and its elegant knitting together of imagery and theme. But the two hours-plus leading up to that moment, more often than not, are a chore...On the plus side, the expected patchwork signs of a Frankenstein's monster are not apparent. The show is fairly much of a piece, even if there's scant cohesion to the new score by Take That frontman Gary Barlow and Brit songwriter Eliot Kennedy, which weaves cloying platitudes into numbers that run from generic pop to bad theatrical pastiche...At the core of the show are sensitive, naturalistic performances from Morrison and Kelly, two accomplished musical-theater actors who sketch their characters' mutual yearnings and sorrows in delicate strokes, at times finding sincerity even in the most hackneyed lyrics...there's nonetheless no convincing argument here that a Finding Neverland musical was ever an artistically valid idea.
| 2015 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2016 | US Tour |
First US National Tour US Tour |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Musical | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Lighting Design | Kenneth Posner |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Orchestrations | Simon Hale |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Scenic Design | Scott Pask |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Score | Gary Barlow |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Jonathan Deans |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Carolee Carmello |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Kelsey Grammer |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Finding Neverland |
Videos